Stealing Phoenix

by Joss Stirling

  My alarm beeped on my bedside clock, warning me that it was only a minute to go until roll call. I left my room at a jog and joined the others running down the stairs to the playground. No one spoke: the tension at this point was always too high; after the ordeal had been survived, that was when we would stop to talk. I slid into my usual spot by the roundabout and sat on the edge, picking at the paint. I could see Tony lurking over by the swings, as usual keeping a low profile.

  At nine o’clock precisely, with a touch of the Seer’s mind, the floodlights went on, driving away the dusk. A door opened on the top floor and the white-suited form of our leader came to the rail.

  The Seer, real name unknown. Black hair slicked back, face pillowed by double chins, puffy fingers stuffed with rings: he was a heart-attack waiting to happen, but sadly he had never had so much as a twinge. I’d sometimes fantasized how it would be if he did keel over: would we all disperse like escapees from a prison break or would some other bully step into his shoes? He had been grooming Dragon and Unicorn for the top job for a couple of years now, amusing himself with their rivalry. If any of us was going to take over it would be one of them. Dragon’s power was to move things by mind alone—I’d seen him shift a car once that way; Unicorn could make things age—fruit ripen, plants bloom and die—that kind of stuff. Of the two, I’d prefer to be attacked by Dragon: being chucked across a room held many more attractions than losing years of my life.

  The Seer’s men were spreading out through the rest of us to do the collecting. They had adopted a uniform of black T-shirts, leather jackets and trousers, the negative to the Seer’s white suit. I kept my eyes on my fingernails, picking off the blue gloss, hoping that by some miracle they’d pass me by. I had plenty of time to think myself into a depression. What was it about us Savants? Why with these gifts were we reduced to living such a shitty life? I’d watched enough television to know that most people my age had families, went to school, had normal settled lives in nice streets. Why was I here in this dump? I’d love to be somewhere where the people under the roof outnumbered the rats. Being a Savant should mean we’d drawn the long straw in the genetic lottery, as by a quirk of nature we’d been given extra, but somehow it had worked out to mean we were twice condemned. Firstly, we were separated from the everyday world by a gift others couldn’t know about or they’d dissect us in a lab or kill us out of fear; secondly, we were destined to be alone as we had been given by the Fates a partner we would probably never meet. We were like Lego kits with half the bits scattered on the other side of the world.

  ‘So, Phee, what have you got today?’

  Great, my luck was really holding in the ‘consistently bad’ zone: it was Unicorn who had stopped in front of me. Tall and gangly with a generous nose, he reminded me of a stretched Mr Bean with the personality appeal of Hitler. He enjoyed inflicting punishment on weaker members of the Community; all of us kept our distance when we could.

  ‘Oh, hi, Unicorn. I had a no-show today at the site. But I found out where they’d be at the college tomorrow so I’m planning to hit them then.’ Did that sound as reasonable as I’d planned?

  He rubbed the bridge of his beaklike nose. ‘What are you saying? Does that mean you’ve got nothing now?’

  I didn’t have to look up to know that attention was now turning to our little conversation. Any pause in the gathering was never good news.

  ‘Not today. But I’m expecting a really big haul tomorrow, though.’

  ‘Oh, Phoenix, you know tomorrow’s no good to the Seer.’ His voice was mock sorrowful.

  A big chunk of blue paint chipped off. ‘I … I thought it’d be OK, you know, this once. Just this once.’

  He hauled me up by the elbow—my good elbow, thankfully. ‘Come on. Let’s go tell the Seer.’

  No one met my eyes as I was towed across the playground; disgrace has its own repelling force field.

  ‘How did you get back in?’ Unicorn asked coolly as he kicked open the waist-high gate.

  I didn’t want to land my only friend in trouble. ‘I twisted Tony’s arm. He really didn’t want to let me past but I told him about my plan for tomorrow.’

  ‘You could’ve nicked some other stuff to make up, saved yourself the heat for this.’ He pushed me to go up the stairs first.

  I shook my head as if surprised by the notion. ‘But I thought we had to do the mission we were given—not strike out on our own.’ That was one of the Community rules.

  ‘Yeah, but there are times to play by the book, and times to go a little off piste, you get me?’ He shoved me in the small of the back as I wasn’t going fast enough for his long legs. ‘With your gift, I’d have you travelling by tube all day, freezing commuters in the tunnels. Don’t know why the Seer wants to waste your gift on small fry like the tourists at the site.’ He cleared his throat, realizing what he said sounded too much like rebellion. ‘But I’m sure he had his reasons.’

  Footsteps climbed the stairs to catch us up.

  ‘Hey, Corn-boy, where you taking Phee?’ It was Dragon, puffing with the unaccustomed exercise. A redhead with freckles, he looked friendlier than he was—a jovial rugby player but with a vicious bite like his namesake.

  Unicorn enjoyed his moment of tale-telling. ‘She didn’t bring anything in.’

  ‘What, nothing?’

  ‘Zero. Nada. Zilch.’

  ‘Phee, you gone mental or what?’

  I hung my head, trying for the confused kid look. ‘It was no good at the site today so I thought I’d do the job tomorrow at the college—that’s if the Seer still wants this group hit.’

  Unicorn prodded me back into motion. ‘Yeah, he does. He really wants the gear off that one he told you to single out.’

  ‘But I can get lots of stuff off all of them—they each have a laptop at least. Foreign currency too.’

  He shrugged. ‘Whatever. Tell your excuses to the Seer, not to us.’

  Dragon held him back for a second. ‘But it’s Phee we’re talking about. What if he makes her punish herself?’

  I was surprised Dragon had any pity for me. Sure, we’d grown up together but that made us more like crabs in a sack, clawing at each other, not allies.

  ‘Not really our problem, is it?’ Unicorn hurried me out on to the balcony on the fifth floor. ‘I doubt he’d take it too far, not with her. Blood counts for something.’

  Blood?

  ‘You’re right.’ Dragon gave a huff of relief. ‘He’s not got rid of any of us kids so far.’

  I came to a dead stop and swung round to face them. ‘Kids?’

  I’d halted so quickly that Unicorn collided with me, pushing me to the floor. He stumbled over my body, treading on my hand. ‘Keep moving, you fricking idiot! You can’t make it worse by making him wait.’

  I clutched my hands to my chest—now both were injured but my shock numbed the pain. ‘You said “kids”.’ I didn’t want to get up, not without answers.

  ‘So? Don’t say you didn’t suspect. The Seer does not keep children in the Community unless he thinks we’re his.’

  Oh God. ‘I’m going to be sick.’ I twisted on to my knees to retch but nothing came up but bile. I’d not eaten since the day before so was running on empty.

  Dragon seized me by the back of my shirt and pulled me to my feet. ‘Get a grip, Phee. The Seer’s your daddy and he gave you your powers so you should be grateful to him.’

  ‘He’s not my father.’ My mother had always said my dad was someone wonderful that she’d met on a romantic holiday in Greece just before she hooked up with the Community. He had been tall, dark blue eyes like me, and handsome—the perfect man, but not a Savant so not her soulfinder.

  Dragon shook me. ‘I don’t give a flying freak who you think your daddy is but I don’t want to see you hurting yourself, so stop acting like a fool and do this right. You have to explain yourself to the Seer, not have a mental breakdown on the floor.’

  His words were rough but he was speaking sense. Whatever was the
truth, I had to box it away, stuff it in the attic and deal with it later, like so many things in life here. ‘OK, OK, just give me a moment.’ I took a deep breath. A sensible girl would try and make the best of the news, not go into a spin. ‘So, if you are … you know … does that make you, like, my brothers?’

  Unicorn snorted. ‘Half-brothers, but that’s not much more than a biological coincidence, so don’t go making more of it than it deserves.’

  ‘Yeah, and have you seen how baby birds behave in a nest?’ Dragon grinned, showing his uneven teeth. ‘We’d have you up and over the side if you get in the way.’ He slapped me on the back, making me stagger into a walk.

  OK, so that was clear enough: my may- or may-not-be brothers were only slightly interested in my future, mostly because if something bad happened to me, it could happen to them too. Nothing much had changed.

  We reached the Seer standing outside his front door. The other Savants were still gathered down in the playground, held there by his gaze, which was more painful than staring straight at the floodlights. Hearing our footsteps, he turned to us, bringing his pale blue eyes, tiny jewels in a shiny cushion of a face, to rest on me. I immediately felt the prickle of his search through my mind for my excuses. In defence, I flooded my mind with my distress at just learning he might be my father, something that should be enough to distract even him. He broke the contact with a small smile, the sort Dracula has before he sinks his teeth in a vein.

  ‘Unicorn, hand out the schedule for tomorrow.’ The Seer’s voice was a whisper, as though he was being perpetually strangled. ‘Dragon, bring Phoenix inside.’

  The one place in the estate where any work had been done was this apartment. The Seer’s men had knocked out a couple of walls in complete disregard of structural considerations to make a large lounge-come-party space. The gleaming expanse of floor was oak, stolen from a DIY store and laid by us before the Seer moved in. Three huge leather sofas corralled the massive TV at one end of the room. The Seer’s current girlfriends were draped decoratively over the cushions sipping improbable looking cocktails. I always thought it weird that he was pretending he was in a Manhattan penthouse when outside we were in scraggy old Mile End. The effect was about as convincing as a knocked-off designer Rolex selling at the market for fifty quid. The Seer loved his fantasies and this was a cheap version, an approximation of the kind of life he watched on the screen.

  The Seer plumped his fat butt down in the centre of the middle sofa, a space already concave to his shape as he sat there most of the day. He wriggled his fingers—a sign that I was to approach. ‘Phoenix, explain.’

  I stood before him, pausing at the edge of the fluffy white rug as I was afraid I’d get it dirty if I trod on it and so increase his desire to punish me. My story sounded frail even to me as I trotted it out again. Dragon had positioned himself immediately behind the Seer and I could tell from his glum expression that he didn’t think it was going well.

  I’d wound down to an unimpressive close when the Seer held up his finger. ‘You saw the boy I told you to steal from?’

  I’d been given a photograph of the target the day before, a copy of his passport mugshot. ‘Yes, from a distance. He was easy to spot. I saw him … um …’ think of a plausible place, ‘going into a lecture room with the others. He’s tall.’

  ‘And you think you can do the job tomorrow—get his valuables as I asked?’

  No, because his stuff was a pile of melted circuit boards. ‘I’m sure.’

  Really? The Seer had switched to using telepathy. I hated the feeling of him crawling around inside my brain.

  Yes, I’m certain. I replied in the same way, trying to keep my thoughts fixed on the single thought ‘daddy’.

  He smiled again and beckoned me closer. I took that as an invitation to sully the rug with my feet. Pointing at a spot immediately in front of him, he waited. What now? I glanced up at Dragon. He was making ‘get down’ gestures. My knees folded and I sank to the floor at the Seer’s feet. A heavily ringed hand patted my head.

  ‘You look very much like Sadie did at your age. I’ll have to find you a partner in the Community soon—someone worthy of being tied to my bloodline.’

  Ice ran down my spine. I did not want to hear him reminiscing about my mother—or his plans for my future.

  ‘I wondered when you would realize your relationship to me. Your mother filled your head with a lot of lies and it’s taken you a long while to come to your senses. I think it’s about time you joined Unicorn and Dragon as part of my dynasty.’ He paused, clearly expecting me to fill the gap with profuse thanks when I really wanted to run a mile in the opposite direction.

  ‘I … um … don’t know what to say.’ That was true at least.

  He cupped my chin, squeezing a touch too hard. ‘Get the American boy’s stuff, Phoenix. I need it. Then we’ll see about your future.’

  I still had one? ‘I will, I promise.’

  He let go and I mistook that as my signal to rise. ‘Wait. Your punishment.’

  I sank back on my knees. The room fell silent; the women not daring to move on the sofas, no ice clinking in cocktail glasses.

  A little worm crept into my brain and began sliming its message across my mind.

  ‘You will not eat or drink until you’ve done this. You won’t be able to.’ He spoke the words as he imprinted them on my mind telepathically.

  Dragon let out his breath, obviously fearing something far worse. The women relaxed; one took a nibble of the olives on the glass-topped coffee table.

  The Seer released me. ‘Do you understand, Phoenix?’

  I nodded, hand pressed to my throat. I could already feel the revulsion to the thought of taking any refreshment planted by his power over my mind.

  ‘Then you’d better make an early start. You wouldn’t want to miss breakfast, now, would you?’ He chuckled, the great rolls of his belly heaving up and down like a little island undergoing an earthquake. ‘Run along, my petal.’ He glanced at the blank screen behind me and the television blared into life.

  I got up and hurried from the room, leaving the Seer surrounded by his cronies. It didn’t take a genius to work out that those not already related by blood were jockeying for position to gain the chance of being the partner he would choose for me, yet another rival for Unicorn and Dragon to worry about. My two ‘brothers’ would be no friends to this scheme.

  Tony hovered in the shadows of the landing, braving the fifth floor when he should have been in the basement. ‘Everything OK, Phee?’

  I nodded, though I should have shaken my head if I was being truthful. I didn’t really have that evil man’s DNA, did I?

  ‘You not tell them about me?’ So that was why he was here.

  ‘Unicorn knows, but he didn’t make a fuss about it. I said nothing to the Seer because it didn’t come up.’

  Tony scratched his chin then gave a satisfied nod. ‘All right. It’s all sorted with Sean too, he won’t say what went down at the site. You just make sure you come back with lots of stuff tomorrow, deal?’

  ‘Yeah, deal.’

  He gave me a brief grin. ‘For once, the little guys win a round, hey?’

  I wouldn’t call it that but he could have his illusory victory. ‘Yeah.’

  ‘Goodnight.’ He waved farewell as he shuffled off to the stairs.

  I couldn’t bring myself to reply: there was nothing good about this night. I was going to be hungry and thirsty but unable to do anything about it, but the sickening revelation about my father was the thing that was really going to rob me of sleep. If I had had a star to wish on just then, I would have asked never to have been born.

  I was about to retreat into my flat when Unicorn appeared out of nowhere. He pulled me up short and pushed me against the wall, hand on my neck. ‘What did Tony mean?’

  ‘That I … I didn’t get punished much—that I was given a second chance,’ I said quickly, too terrified to struggle against his grip. This was turning into the second worst
day of my life—the first place going to the day my mum died.

  Unicorn leaned in to me, tightening his grip. ‘And the Seer still wants you to go after that boy?’

  ‘Yes.’ I closed my eyes against the pain. Was there an inch on me that wasn’t going to end up hurting tonight?

  ‘Why?’

  How was I expected to know? But then Unicorn wasn’t really talking to me, the question hanging in the air between us. He released his hold on my neck and stepped back.

  ‘Tony let you in.’

  I’d already told him that. ‘Yes.’

  ‘You care about Tony?’

  Loaded question. I answered with a shrug.

  ‘I know you do. If you want Tony to be kept out of this, you bring me what you steal from the boy first, OK? Before you take it to the Seer.’

  That was not in the rules. We were supposed to hand everything over in public at the gathering, not make private exchanges behind the Seer’s back.

  My expression must have told him I was not happy with this suggestion. He put his hand back on my throat, this time stroking the bruise. ‘Does Tony mean so little to you? I thought he was your friend.’ He said the word as if it were a synonym for ‘cockroach’.

  ‘OK, I’ll find you first. Just don’t do anything to Tony, please?’

  He lifted his hand away and smiled. ‘As if I would.’

  Infiltrating the Queen Mary College campus was much easier than I anticipated. I was the right age for a student; had made an effort to look as though I was meant to be there, equipping myself with a couple of brochures from the foyer, so no one even challenged me as I pushed through the front doors.